[documentation] how to upgrade from 5.x to 6.x

[Steven Peck]

I have not always disabled contrib modules (usually I do) but I have
always started with a clean directory and Drupal core only (and set to
blue marine).  Then added contrib modules back in, either one at a
time or in groups depending on how inter-related the functionality of
the modules were.

So far it has seemed the safest and least trouble prone to me an d my
admittedly non-developer troubleshooting skills.  If something doesn't
work, then the most recently added contrib module is something to look
at.

Now, this thread shows there are advanced and beginner ways to upgrade
a site.  I think we should be cautious and tend towards the simplistic
beginner side of things in the base level docs, but perhaps we can
also offer an 'advanced' option with caveats and warnings about
troubleshooting complexities?

Steven

On Jan 18, 2008 1:59 PM, Brian Choc <bchoc at t4tcolorado.org> wrote:
> Not quite the same thing, but I can give you a concrete example of where
> the handbook-way will fail.
>
> In upgrading from 5.1 ->5.2, 5.2 ->5.3, 5.3 ->5.5 I have always tried to
> do it "by the book" in disabling all the non-core modules.  However,
> each time it has failed and I've had to revert to backup and reupgrade
> without disabling the modules.  (I'll be doing some 5.5 -> 5.6 soon.)
>
> I have narrowed this down, I believe, to a specific point of failure.
> If a CCK field is assigned to a module-created node type then
> information will be lost during the handbook-upgrade.  For an example,
> the Simplenews module creates its own "Newsletter issue" node type.
> Using CCK to add fields to the node type works just fine, but the
> content will be lost during the standard upgrade process.
>
> I hope this is relevant to the documentation process,
> Brian
>
>
>
>
> Greg Knaddison wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm asking this on question to both Devel and Docs because I'm about
> > to make an "upgrading" screencast and want to be sure that I'm using
> > the best method.
> >
> > In our handbook[1] we tell people that before the upgrade they should
> >
> > "Turn off (but do not uninstall) all modules that are not core modules"
> >
> > I've done that a few times and it always threw various errors when I
> > then installed the updated versions of the contrib modules.  I then
> > started to follow steps more like:
> >
> > 1. Download the new version (i.e. 6.x)
> > 2. Download the 6.x compatible version of all my contribs (fix or
> > remove the ones that haven't been upgraded)
> > 3. Install the new core and contrib modules
> > 4. Run update.php which will do all of core and contrib at the same
> > time which, in my experience, causes fewer errors
> >
> > In discussion last night chx mentioned that the reason we tell people
> > to disable the contrib modules is to prevent bootstrap.inc from
> > calling a function that no longer exists and thus locking you out of a
> > site.  I think that is not a problem as long as you do my steps 2/3.
> >
> > Does anyone have a concrete, repeatable, simple example of why doing
> > it my way is worse than the way in the handbook?  I think this might
> > be a relic of the update process of years gone by that we can now
> > forget, which would be nice since I think it simplifies the process.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Greg
> >
> > [1] http://drupal.org/upgrade/preparing-the-site
> >
> >
> --
>
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